Sunday, May 31, 2015

When I quilted myImprov Mini Wall Hangings, I ended up with a load of thread scraps from all the color changes. Not wanting to waste a photo opportunity, I molded, played and formed it into this heart!

Last week I visited Craftsy ... their fabric sale actually. I was weak. I bought a little something! And thank you Craftsy for sending me the 'New Sunday Steals'. I haven't looked yet...should I?

Shot Cottons: Persimmon, Latte and Aegean. I was so excited when I saw all three together! Not planned, but they look great together.

Kona Cotton: Teal, Black and Steel. No big deal. (I rhymed)

How about this? Elizabeth Hartman Fat Quarter Bundle ~ Kona. It got me. I was so excited when I saw it, perfect stash builder. As I was marveling at the color goodness, I turned it over and saw this:

Can you say Wahhhhh? Took the wind out of my sail! Almost! It looks like grease and some of the pieces have little rips. Must have been a conveyor belt mishap.

What to do? I could exchange it, but this bundle isn't available any longer. I could return it, but I love it. I most likely will cut it to pieces so the gunk should matter. I'm still debating...

Look at that...how could I give it up?

Just what you wanted to see after fabric...my feet! Some people get really freaked out about feet, I'm that way with ears! Weird...I know!

These are my new sandals! I get excited when I find clothing or shoes that I love. I hate shopping...really! (all shopping except for fabric) When I find something, I get happy!

Friday, May 29, 2015

I've been playing around with my hand dyed scraps the past couple days. Trying to think of something spectacular to make. Or just something. Until I can get back to the dye pots (hopefully mid-June), I've made it my mission to whittle down the scraps pile before I let myself have fun.

Here is part of the scraps. They don't look very impressive, pretty dull picture really. I should have staged it and pulled the bright ones out! First, I have to start with something. It's taken me days to get a couple ideas together and made. There has been little time to work through the ideas. My husband and I decided it was time to cut down and dig out the bushes in the front of the house. There is a total of six and they are the size of a mini cooper car! The years have been good to them, but they have been having issues. We weren't sure how awful it was going to be...so we took a chance. The first day we muscled one out and got a pretty good feel for the project. In the process I got stung by a bee on my chin. It was fine until yesterday. All of the sudden it decided to swell up and itch. Honestly I feel like Dudley Do Right ~ although it doesn't look that bad! Just feels that bad!

Yesterday we got two pulled out. I thought I made it through without injury only to hit myself in the shin with the shovel! I bruise so easy and you can imagine the colors appearing right before my eyes, along with a sweet knot. Visual: think of Olive Oyl with goosebumps. (someone remembers, right?)Today another two came out and I survived! Just a blister and a few scratches! Last day will be tomorrow!Back to scraps...

I scraped together enough large pieces for a triangle baby quilt. It will be layered and quilted at a later date!

I had pieces left from the edges of the triangles and many from previous triangle projects. Why not sew them together? Make some Half Rectangles Triangles and see what sticks!I ended up with several different sizes. Seriously I haven't a clue what I'm making then or now! But its fun and challenging!

I could do something like this.

Or maybe even this. This would involve partial seams though. Do I want to go there again? You bet I do! (at least to try it out)

Tried, easy and not too shabby! I will make a tutorial for this one! Still waiting for that brainstorm to hit ~ I'm leaning towards a sampler type quilt.

With my new found love of paper piecing, I wanted to try double geese. These went together pretty quickly!

Medallion quilt?!

Don't you love indecision?! It is sometimes hard to have a concrete, solid plan. Being bound and determined to 'Scrap It Out' has its downside or up side?! Depends on how you look at it. Right now I'm playing and playing is good! I'm on the up side today!

Who likes to 'Scrap It Out'? Do you have a serious plan before starting?

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

I was so surprised and super honored when Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework nominated me for the Lovely Blog Award. I wasn't sure what the deal was and after reading Cynthia's post it was clear I wanted to be a part of it. I have followed Cynthia's blog for some time now. She is amazingly talented from top to bottom with a big dose of down home warmth!

If you are nominated there are three rules:

1) Acknowledge the sweet person who nominated you2) Share 7 things about yourself (deep dark secrets? or maybe a few things no one knows)3) Nominate 10 other blogs/bloggers for the award

This is super hard sharing something about myself. I'm not that interesting! The moment of truth...seven things about myself.

I never wanted to quilt. Furthest thing from my mind. Thankfully I had a very pushy and persistent daughter! She pushed, pulled and encouraged me. She encouraged (and still does) me to let go, go for it and follow my gut. I have always been inspired by her.

I once lived on an old alligator farm in Florida with my family. We had to feed them regularly or they would not be happy. At one time there were baby alligators in the tub, alligators ready to jump in the pool and one that was a massive old beast called 'Johnny Tractor'.

I have eight siblings. Four brothers and three sisters. They live all over the place from Oregon, Arizona, Montana to Minnesota.

If I could become anything, it would be a detective. Maybe not, but I love watching crime shows and delight in the process of solving crimes.

I'm a homebody. It's my happy place, my comfort. Plus, I can stay in my PJ's all day long if I want too! I am a creature of habit.

My favorite movie is The Wizard of Oz. There's no place like home...it's a classic that I will never tire of seeing. Magical!

I was born in International Falls Minnesota. I hate cold. I lived in Florida, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Oregon and currently Tennessee. I love hot. Even numbers, potatoes, and being barefoot. And I love my sewing machine!

And so, nominating my 10 blogs! There are so many inspiring and fantastic bloggers/blogs that just picking ten may be tough, but here are mine:

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

We all have special memories of our childhood. Something that makes you sigh in happiness and lets you relive that glorious moment once again. When I saw the book The Paper Pieced Home ~ I had a flashback to a time when I didn't have a care in the world. All that mattered was getting my paper dolls cut out by my big sister! When I saw this paper pieced paper doll dress, I knew I had to make it! So the fun began!

The first thing I did was enlarged the pattern to 125%. I wanted a little more to work with for my soon to be mini!

I really think any fabric would work, but as always I struggled with deciding what I wanted to use. Too much to choose from perhaps! In the end, I went with Heather Ross' Briar Rose. I'll be making two dresses and think these look great together.

Naturally I started with the easiest section...just to get warmed up. I had to include the little bee in the honeycomb dress. It's just so darn cute!

Piece by piece I pieced...and pieced. One mess up during both dresses isn't bad! Considering all the sections.

The moment of truth is when each section goes together. Did I get it right? Will they all fit together? Fingers crossed, it has to work!

One thing I love about the patterns is there are little vertical lines to match up each section. It helped a lot and made it easier to put each section together.

The moment of truth.

There are a couple of spots that are slightly off. Not perfect. I am not going to complain about that...I am thrilled with them!

I started with a white border only to realize I didn't have a plan what to do next. I called it an evening after this step! Surely something will come to me in a dream!

That didn't happen. I still was at a loss the next morning! My first thought was adding 3/4" Hexies around the edge ~ somewhere. I wasn't feeling that at all. Thinking, swearing and a lot of talking to myself (irritating my daughter to no end!), an idea finally came to me.

After cutting the first border down, I pieced together 3/4" strips of the prints with white and came up with tiny little 1/4" squares. Adorable!! They were haphazardly placed around the the edges and finished off with the final border.

I decided to use my latest fabric purchase, Pearl Bracelets for the backing and yellow for the binding. Those little fingers...my daughters! Nothing makes her happier than jumping into a photo just as I snap the picture. Jokes on her though...I liked it!

My free motion quilting is still an on going practice session and most likely always will be. These little Mini's are a good way to keep practicing and maybe one day I will be more confident at it.

I like it though. I didn't want to do too much in the dresses. By too much you can see I did nothing except a little outline.

15" x 14"

I plan on sending this wall hanging to someone special, but I can't say who that is! It would ruin the surprise!So, do they still make paper dolls? Did you play with them? I remember how the little tabs would rip off I would use bobby pins to hold the paper clothing on. Or the flimsy cardboard stands no longer would hold up the beautiful paper dolls and I would make not much better stands to replace them. Carefree days! I remember having my sister's cut them out for me when I was little. My memory says they loved doing it. However I'm sure they hated it and only reluctantly did so!

Friday, May 22, 2015

I am proud to share this finished quilt! It has had a long, long shelf life. You get to a certain point where finishing a WIP or someone else's WIP (my daughter), just needs to be tackled!When I first blogged about this quilt ~ Not My WIP!! 6-Pointed Star~it was going to be my first attempt at partial seams (AKA 'Y' seams). Taking on that challenge was well worth it in the end. Not only did I learn something new, but I got a gorgeous Anna Maria Horner quilt out of the deal!

60" x 75"

I knew one day these 6 pointed stars would all come together. Didn't know I would be the one to do it...but did it I did!

There is a fabulous mix of Good Folks and Garden Party against a delicious caramel / amber solid. I love the colors, love, love, love!

I had this sitting over my rail for far too long! Really I wasn't sure how to quilt it. So I ignored it and hoped a quilting fairy would come along and deal with it!

And she did...Her name is Vickey. Studio V offers edge to edge longarm quilting and has an Etsy shop full of fabric! (Studio V on Etsy) I met Vickey when she joined our local guild. I think our entire guild will be keeping her very busy ~ not even kidding! Its so nice to have a longarm connection that you trust, know and close to home!

I decided to go with Bubble Feathers for the quilting. And I love it! Especially the thread color.

The backing is Kona Cotton Glacier, which I thought was a great fit with all the colors in the stars.

The timing for finishing this quilt couldn't have been more perfect. Our weather dipped drastically yesterday! I'm pretty sure we didn't even hit 60 degrees and to me that is darn near winter! Not only did I get to wrap myself in this while doing some hand sewing last night, but I got to toss it on the bed for extra warmth too!

I'm pleased, over joyed and giddy with excitement with this quilt! Oh and did I mention...It's all MINE???!!

On another note, I have a stack of projects in their final binding phase ~ hand stitching the bindings. It is a simple pleasure that I love to do at night during TV time! Another happy place I like to go to!

It has gone through many months of change. It started as a tiny thought that went through many different phases of design. Just when I thought I was dead in the water, another idea would pop in to my head!

ENCAPSULATED48" x 65"

There were so many twists and turns along the way, but so worth it! I'm in love with the Art Deco vibe.

The center was a thread nightmare! There were so many threads to bury in the end. I wanted to keep the center clean, meaning I used white thread!

You really get a sense of the quilting detail through the back. Except for the black thread on black...hard to get a good picture of that!I blogged regularly about this quilt. If you are interested in reading more here are all the links:

I cannot believe Bloggers Quilt Festival is here already. But it is! Amy at Amy's Creative Side always puts on a good event! Packed full of fun, prizes and of course lots of gorgeous quilts in all shapes and sizes.

I figured I may as well enter a quilt of two, just for fun! Opal is entered in the MODERN Quilt Category.

Opal50" x 64"

This quilt is named after my Grama Opal. Which is also a big part of 'Twiggy & Opal' the name of my Etsy Shop and my blog. She always said to me 'Jayne, your thin as a twig'! And viola! A name is born including a loving tribute to my Grama!

This quilt shows the varying colors against a light background...just like the semi-precious Opal stone.

I used a beautiful bundle of Shot Cottons for the blocks. The colors are amazing! From the lightest of pink to a dark plum and everything in between. The background is Kona Shadow ~ the perfect shade and lightness to bring out the delicate colors!

I went CRAZY with the quilting! After dividing the quilt in 4 sections, I machine quilted super dense organic lines in a Log Cabin type design. There are about six different thread colors in there.

This is the back. I couldn't let those test blocks go to waste, so I incorporated them in the back using Kona Pewter and Iron

If you would like to read more about this quilt here are a couple links: